CoreProtect: The Complete Admin Guide (2026)
CoreProtect is the most-installed grief-protection plugin on Spigot, Paper, and Purpur servers. It logs every block break, placement, chest transaction, chat message, command, sign edit, login, and item drop in a local database. When grief happens, you do not negotiate, you do not investigate for hours: you run one command and the damage is undone, surgical to the player who caused it, without touching anyone else's build.
This page covers every command you actually need in practice, the flag combinations that handle the most common admin scenarios, and the setup steps that prevent the plugin from becoming a performance problem at scale.
The four commands that do 95% of the work
| Command | Alias | What it does |
|---|---|---|
/co inspect | /co i | Toggle inspector mode. Click a block (or the air where one used to be) and chat tells you who, when, and what. |
/co lookup | /co l | Search the logs without changing anything. Use this to investigate before you commit to a rollback. |
/co rollback | /co rb | Undo actions matching the filters. Reverses placements and breaks, restores stolen items. |
/co restore | /co rs | The opposite of rollback. Reapply actions, or undo a rollback you regret. |
Every other command (/co purge, /co reload, /co status, /co consumer, /co migrate-db, /co help) is administrative housekeeping.
The flag system
Rollback, restore, and lookup all share the same filter language. Combine flags to narrow what gets touched.
| Flag | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
u:<user> | One or more usernames (comma-separated). | u:Notch,Intelli |
t:<time> | Time window. Units: w, d, h, m, s. Ranges with a dash. | t:5d2h or t:1h-2h |
r:<radius> | Block radius from you. r:#global = whole server. r:#world_nether = one specific world. | r:50 |
a:<action> | Filter by action type. See table below. | a:-block |
i:<include> | Target specific block/item IDs only. | i:diamond_ore |
e:<exclude> | Exclude block/item IDs from the operation. | e:dirt,stone |
Action filters (the a: flag)
| Filter | What it matches |
|---|---|
a:block | All block changes (place + break). Use a:+block for placements only, a:-block for breaks only. |
a:container | Chest, barrel, shulker, hopper transactions. a:+container = items added, a:-container = items removed. |
a:inventory | Inventory changes (death drops, picked-up items). |
a:item | Item drops and pickups in the world. |
a:click | Player right-clicks (interactions with buttons, levers, doors). |
a:command | Commands run by players. |
a:chat | Chat messages. |
a:sign | Sign text changes. |
a:kill | Mob and player deaths. |
a:session | Logins and logouts. |
a:username | Player username changes. |
Hashtag modifiers
| Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|
#preview | Show what would change without applying. Always run this before a big rollback. |
#count | Return only the number of matching results. |
#verbose | Extra detail in the chat output. |
#silent | Suppress chat spam. |
#optimize | Optimize MySQL tables (CoreProtect 2.15+). Run periodically on busy servers. |
Common scenarios with the exact command
1. Investigate a broken block
/co i
<left-click the air where the block was, or click a remaining block>
/co iChat will tell you who broke it, what it was, and when. Toggling /co i off when done avoids accidental clicks logging as inspections.
2. Undo one griefer's actions in the last hour
/co rollback u:Griefer123 t:1h r:#globalRolls back everything that user did in the last hour across the entire server. Other players' work is untouched.
3. Preview before committing
/co rollback u:Griefer123 t:1h r:#global #previewShows what the rollback would do without applying it. If the count is sane, run again without #preview.
4. Recover stolen items from a chest
<stand next to the chest>
/co lookup a:-container r:5 t:1hLists everyone who removed items from containers within 5 blocks in the last hour. Run /co rollback with the same flags to put them back.
5. Roll back lava grief without restoring legitimate dirt placement
/co rollback u:Griefer123 t:30m r:#global i:lavaUse i: to target only the lava placements. Dirt or other innocuous blocks the same player placed are left alone.
6. Undo a bad rollback
/co undoReverses the most recent rollback or restore. Useful when the #preview count was wrong.
7. See who logged in today
/co lookup a:session t:24h r:#global8. Find who set a sign
/co lookup a:sign r:5 t:7dStand next to the sign and run the lookup. Useful for identifying offensive content authors.
Database setup: SQLite vs MySQL
CoreProtect ships with SQLite by default and writes everything to a single database.db file in the plugin folder. SQLite is perfect for servers up to about 15 concurrent players. Past that, lock contention during heavy logging can cause TPS dips.
When to switch to MySQL or MariaDB:
- Server population regularly exceeds 15 players.
- Rollbacks of large windows (24h+) cause visible lag.
- The
database.dbfile exceeds 5 GB. - You run multiple servers (BungeeCord / Velocity) and want a shared log database.
Switching is a one-time operation. As of CoreProtect 23.0, the /co migrate-db command moves your existing logs from SQLite to MySQL (or back) without losing data. Configure the MySQL connection in plugins/CoreProtect/config.yml first, then run the migrate command from the server console.
Performance tips
- Always preview first. A rollback against
u:Griefer t:7d r:#globalon a busy world can touch millions of blocks and freeze the server for minutes. Use#preview+#countto size the operation. - Narrow with
i:ore:. If a griefer placed lava, only roll back lava. Don't roll back every block they touched if you don't have to. - Schedule purges. Set
purge-timein config.yml to a reasonable retention window (e.g. 30 days). Without purging, the database grows forever. - Optimize MySQL monthly. Run
/co lookup #optimizeonce a month to keep query times fast. - Keep
verbosechat off in production. Verbose output can DOS the chat queue during a big rollback.
Installing CoreProtect
- Download the latest CoreProtect JAR from docs.coreprotect.net or Modrinth.
- Drop the JAR into your server's
plugins/folder. - Restart the server (not just
/reload). - On first boot CoreProtect creates the
plugins/CoreProtect/config.ymland (for SQLite) thedatabase.dbfile. - Optional: edit
config.ymlto switch to MySQL and tune the action toggles (you can disablechat-loggingif you have a Discord bridge already covering it). - Restart once more after any config change.
Permissions for non-OP admins are granted via the coreprotect.* permission node (or individual coreprotect.inspect, coreprotect.rollback, etc. for fine-grained control).
The single most important habit: always #preview before a rollback you're not 100% sure about. The damage from a rollback gone wrong (rolling back a week of legitimate building) is harder to fix than the original grief.
Run CoreProtect on a managed Minecraft server
On Supercraft Minecraft hosting, CoreProtect is one-click installable from the panel's plugin manager, and the database lives on the same NVMe disk as your world for low-latency lookups. Pair this guide with the performance optimization article if your server is approaching the SQLite-to-MySQL threshold.